Bret's Learning log

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So I have read a few of these on here, and I felt inspired. I was recently thinking I need to get some accountability, or somehow journal or get this out on paper, and when I saw learning logs pop up I thought it might be a great idea and a way to get some of my thoughts, my wins and losses down for accountability.

This is just an intro to say hi all, I think that I will plan to make a post on Sundays Australian time, as that is my free day, and I can reflect easily on the week just past.

I have recently found my new guitars, and so saving for them is my next big thing.

I"ll put in my first real log post on Sunday, when I take some time to reflect a little on where I am and where I am going

Bret

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you re going on a guitar journey that is for sure

welcome in the log community :slight_smile:

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So I didn’t get the chance to update this yesterday, and I wanted to put in a thoughtful post.

I am back at guitar now after about 8 years off. Never really got past grade 1 last time, and this time I am all in again, invested financially as well, new amp, new Sheeran looper plus, new guitar this week hopefully.

Goals - Having music be a big part of my life as I look back at it, I don’t know why I didn’t pursue this in anyway, maybe the massive stage fright/anxiety had a part, or the fact I never thought I was that good… Either way here we are.

I have been back at it about 6 months full time. I would consider myself finished module 1, and moving onto module 2, until the other day when I played along with a few of the songs on the app and know I have a lot to work on.

I am currentyl also learning piano self taught, well like a follow along book/video course, and I am doing vocal lessons once a month, so now it comes down to time and practice.

This is a list of things from Module 1 that I am working on. I am using the plectrum in a jar method for practice now, because I found that thinking about what I wanted to practice just wasted time. This way, I know that I have all of these things I need to work on, and then I Just pick and play.

I also know that compounding is the only way to improve, so I continually tell myself that every 5 min session, brings me closer to being better.

*** Things I need to improve ***

  • At the very very top is Rhythm. I realise how uncordinated I can be, especially when moving past 8th notes into 16s. I have a book on it, but possibly when I get cash will get strumming SOS series.
  • Strumming patterns 1-5 - I have Old Faithful pretty down, now working on the other 4, espeically base not proud mary
  • Spider for alternate picking - I am currently not even on the metronome yet
  • Riffs - Wish you were here, Come as you are
  • Min Movement changes
  • Finger gym - PIcking with Hammer ons
  • Finger gym - picking with pull offs
  • Finger gym hammer on pull of
  • Stuck 3/4 chords, and perfect chord practice on these
  • Major scale patter, down strums @ 60bpm 1/4 note strumming
  • Hidden metronome - I am at I think 80 BPM with 16th notes
  • Perfect fast changes - my A chord thumb creeps up so far, and makes my c chord changes hard
  • Finger stretching, I am all the way down at like fret 12 I think, this one has a lot of work to do
  • Quality notes - Major scale pattern no metronome yet
  • 6/8 strumming pattern
  • 1/8 note strumming with accented strums
  • Songs - Level 1
    Three little birds
    Hound Dog
    Walk of life
    The gambler
    Sing
    Those are the songs I want to knock out for 100% from memory to consider grade 1 officially past.
  • e minor pentatonic scale to get to a metronome.

So as you can see there are so many thing there, that I would find it hard to physically do 1hr a day with all of them, so the plectrum choice game is going to help.

I am going to aim to get through these 2 times a week each, but definiately all of them at least once.

My goals for guitar/piano and vocal are all for me, I don’t know that I will ever have the confidence to do it in front of people, but who knows.

Going through a divorce last year, I felt I had a lot to say, and the only way I could get it out was to write songs. I have started getting my ideas down on paper in lyric form.

I am work on Aural training with piano, and through grade 2 of JG I will be working on all of those things as well.

This week I will post my progress on where I am at with each of the above as I do the practice. I might have to create myself a spreadsheet, I don’t like writring my practice down in paper, I want to see how I am doing at a quicker glance, but I haven’t been able to find a format for electronic practice recording that I like, so as it is important just to get it down for now, i’ll continue to write it down.

This is more for me to account for myself and prove that I am getting better as I look back after time, but if anyone reads it, thank you

BK

PS: I will take more videos of performances for better understanding and record of both improvement and where I need to improve…

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Looks like a good plan and you seem to have a good idea of what you need/want to work on. The spreadsheet is a good idea, that’s what I did for consolidation. I made a weekly plan with the days in the columns and then 5 minute practice slots as rows. Then populated the slots with the subjects to make sure I covered everything in the space of a week. The next week just rolls around and it takes out the “what do I do next” questions.

For a 30 minute practice you could do 1 song (10 mins) and 4 x 5 min slots for chords (PFC etc), strumming, technique (spider, finger gym), and scales. Expand the rows if you have more time on particular days as consolidation doesn’t have to be the same length of time every day.

Good luck :grinning:

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yeah that’s a great idea.

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Honestly I’d try to pick a few of them and learn them well and then progress through the list over time. If you try to practice all of those things in a week there’s a danger some of them will get 2 minutes in the entire week and if so are you really learning them? Definitely no harm in having lots of things on the list and will be good to get them ticked off as you progress

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I see your point, but I will only be doing 5 min for each item, so nothing will be 2 minutes, and songs will be longer.

I need to push myself, as I have hit a point where I know I have improved and want to keep going. I feel that with the items listed which are all except a few still grade 1 items, I will have motivation as there are more to do, and I won’t get bored doing the same thing over any over.

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It looks like a lot but if you’re going to spend a few weeks on this I suggest that as you become proficient at some items in the routine then drop them out and put the time to the things you’re having less success with. You can always run the dropped items every couple of weeks to keep your hand in. You gradually whittle down the items in your routine until you have none left - then you move on.

Also, if you’re running any of these with a metronome and you hit a speed barrier then bump your metronome up by 10-20 bpm, play the thing a few times there, then drop it back to the speed you were having trouble with. I often find it’s easier at the original speed once I’ve done this. Don’t play too long at the higher speed though or you’ll learn the wrong thing! Just a 2 or 3 times seems to work for me.

Finally, if you get overwhelmed by the number of items don’t be afraid to change your routine and move it to something more like Matt suggests. As long as you cover the items, and you are honest with yourself when assessing your progress, how you do it is up to you.

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Yeah that’s great advice, and I will definitely look at those speed options…

looks like I can buy my new guitar tomorrow, but it will take 7 days to get to me :frowning:

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Not too much to add to the log this week, didn’t have a lot of time to practice, got in a few 5 minute things here and there, the only thing to really update is the new addition to the family.

Not the red one at the back, that is going to someone else,

the lovely Martin in front…

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IMG_17591920×2560 346 KB

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Happy NGD !

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Ok so it’s been a minute since I even put something up. I have been troubled with trying to track my progress, and being able to easily see ’ hey, you have improved on that’ even though I can probably feel like I am better at something, like increasing the speed of a technique, but I have been really wanting to just keep records so I can track progress. I was putting all my practice down in a book, which was ok, but I had to flip back through to see what was happening and where I was at.

I spent a little time over the weekend trying to ‘find an app for that’… yeah I am that guy, and was almost about to work out how to write my own, when I jumped back on the website and went to the practice trainer… I dismissed this previously because I was using the app to do all my learning, but recently went back and found gold. I am so happy I did, because now I have created 2 routines, 1 for songs and 1 for technique.

I am going to be able to also track my piano and vocal workouts with this as well, and be able to objectively see if I am really getting better.

So I am super stoked to be able to finally have all my eggs in 5 baskets hahah… and 1 to show me how I am going.

I also noticed that I am all over the place in my notes and the beginners course, so I made a conscious decision that I am going to re-write my notes, in order or the course, go back through videos that I know I have missed and take notes on them. This is going to give me a much better grounding, and a much much easier way for me to ‘review’ what I have learnt.

Just this little change has given me a new quick burst of motivation, that and listening to apple music Hoodoo Gurus radio station that pumped out 80’s hit after 90’s hit after hit that I was able to sing to…

So I am off to practice, rewrite some notes, drink some wine and eat some wings…

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Ok so this week, especially yesterday and today I want to say has been a super productive week.
I kept feeling like it was hard to practice because I was just really unorganized. I had my list of things that I should practice, and then I created my Pic “Pick it” game to just pick out tehcnique stuff, but when I didn’t know something and went to my notes, it was a nightmare.

So yesterday and the day before I sat down and re-wrote my grade 1 notes, all 7 modules. I found some new nuggets and watched I would say almost every single video again. The new nuggets were great, but the biggest thing is this organization I have now. I don’t have anything mixed up with my module notes, they will and forever will be modules, in order grade 1 -3 as I progress.

I then re-started music theory, and put that in a different part of a notebook, which will house just the music theory stuff. And then one last part of the notebook will house other courses that are a little shorter, but still important.

I am on my way to do this with piano as well, although my piano notes are already good, I just have to create cards like my guitar picks for technique, so that I can just focus on that.

I then went and put everything I am practicing into Justins practice routine website, I created an item for everything, then I created 3 routines. 1 for Technique, 1 for daily practice (which is stuff that must be done everyday until I don’t need to, which includes strumming patterns, and scale picking) I have those down for 5 min each in daily stuff, I could do more if I want, but 1 scale picking, and 1 choice of 9 strumming patterns to just get going on with rhythm every day, and finally 1 routine for songs, which could be songs in the app, or 1 of the 5 I want to use to ‘pass’ grade 1.

I feel super accomplished right now with this, and what it really does for me is doesn’t give me the choice of less practice. If I am sititing around thinking what to practice, it is now all there, so there is no excuse like ‘oh my notes are messed up and I can’t find anything’, it is now all about physical practice, and memory…

Quite happy to see how I progress now because after going back through grade 1, I have a little bit of renewed vigor, and my big big big focus is going ot be on songs, so many songs to play dayily which like JS says, is why we are doing this.

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Bret, it looks like you are making good progress getting organized with your practice. I basically followed Justins practice plan for grades 1 and 2, but when the list of practice items got longer in grade 3, I started the learning log and tried different ways to organize, since I did grade 3 practice routines, while I was also completing grade 2 consolidation. I settled on using a table of practice items where I put a date when completed. I never tried the pick in a jar game, but I may try in the future if I get bored and want to mix up my practice routine. I also have at least 30 minutes of practice at the beginning of each day, but no more than 40 minutes. I had to set my alarm 10 minutes earlier to give myself more time for practice in the morning. Have fun learning (memorizing) your 5 grade 1 songs. I didn’t finish mine until I had already started grade 3 practices, AVOYP on Oct. 2023 so I was able to use some grade 2 strumming techniques in the grade 1 songs.

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Thanks Steve

I am doing some recording today to see how I am going, i’ll upload a few of these things to my log.

Been inactive in my log, and a little slack on practice, but back at it today

and that is a smart idea, put the actual module practice in for the ‘daily practice’ then anything else I want to do I can use the pic jar…

Love it

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Just finihed up my first practice of the week, full practice. I am loving the click and practice opportunity from each module. I think that I am going to adjust my practice a little to ensure that is the daily practice, then anything else on top of that is going to be based out of my pick jars, and playing just music.

I am not really doing any kind of ear training or aural training yet. I did start the course, and I will look at starting that again, I am finishing up a few things on the musical theory side of grade 3 before I start something new.

I have so many things I want to do, I mean I also want to write songs and I have a Udemy course I have started which is amazing, ( started it ages ago, but never took notes, just listened) talking about relationship of major chord progressions and stuff like that. Just working on getting to a point where I feel like I am good for a beginner

My practice today I have to say was pretty good, my strumming for the most part was on time, chord changes pretty good etc.

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Pretty excited.

I just hooked my piano up to my looper as well, so now I can play with scales and stuff like that and learn in a more fun way.

Helps with so much stuff, I Just never really knew how to use it…

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Had a rough day yesterday. Not sure who really reads this, but if i get it out of my head maybe it will help.

Been having issues with the app songs, and I am not sure if it is me or not, but I have been working on wonderwall, in the app the stuck 3/4 chords are not all used, which I thought they were, but anyway the issue I am having is with the strumming and keeping time. I sound off all the time.

I have turned away from trying to be on the strums ‘on the dots’ in the song app because I am not ‘listening to the music’ doing that, so I have turned up the sound a lot more so I can hear and feel the music, but for some reason with this song I Just don’t seem to be able to get it right.

I guess my next step would be to slow it down a bit, I tried it doing the just 4 down strums, and then just made up a strumming pattern that sounded like the music, maybe I should just do a video and put it up for some positive feedback…

Had a rough week personally all week and music playing or listening did nothing to improve my mindset/mood, which is what I am really looking for in my music, that on these days that I struggle, I can play music and it feels good, instead I just get annoyed that I feel like I am playing like crap and then don’t play…

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Bret, I have had the app for a year and while I liked certain aspects, I didn’t like others. One of these aspects I didn’t like much were little discrepancies between the app songs versions and that what Justin teaches.
So you are surely not alone with this.

You mention slowing it down a bit and trying with four downstrums. In my experience, there is no harm in that. You know when I started my one on one lessons in addition to JG, I took a long list of wishes to my guitar teacher. One of these wishes was 16th note strumming. Legit wish, right? Instead, my guitar teacher had me go back to playing four down strums per bar in the first two lessons. 16th note strumming? Yes, sure I will get there, but it will take the time it takes :slightly_smiling_face:

I am also frustrated sometimes. Am I progressing much? No. It’s mostly two steps forward and one and a half steps back. I’m going in spirals if not circles. Sometimes there are happy moments though. Something suddenly works - if for a moment only. I’m sure it will be the same for your 16th note strumming :slightly_smiling_face:

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Hi @bkennedy74 , I don’t have the app, so take this advice for what it’s worth, but if you want to learn a song properly, I would use the song tutorial on Justin’s web site (Wonderwall). For this song, he goes slowly through the chords, simple strumming and then the full strumming pattern (which is fairly advanced). I think it’s the best way to learn the song.